“Recent Iranian actions, including a provocative ballistic missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants, underscore what should have been clear to the international community all along about Iran’s destabilizing behavior across the Middle East,” National Security Advisor Michael Flynn said of a recent previous test, calling it a violation of international law.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called the earlier test “unacceptable,” and her UK counterpart, Matthew Rycroft, warned that it was a sign Tehran had not moderated since world powers signed an international nuclear agreement with Iran in 2015.

"Iran’s continued support for terrorism and development of its missile program poses a threat to the region, to our partners worldwide and to the United States,” said John E. Smith, the acting sanctions chief at the U.S. Treasury Department. “We will continue to actively apply all available tools, including financial sanctions, to address this behavior.” The United States placed sanctions last Friday on 13 individuals and 12 companies involved in procuring technology for Iran’s ballistic missile program and that have ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force; the Trump White House is considering labeling the IRGC a terrorist organization.

ISIS vs. Israel. An ISIS affiliate located in the Sinai Peninsula claimed responsibility for firing four rockets at the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel on Wednesday. The group stated, “A military squad fired a number of Grad rockets at communities of Jewish usurpers in the town of Eilat…in order to teach the Jews and the crusaders a proxy war will not avail them of anything.” They also warned in their statement, “The future will be more calamitous with Allah’s permission.” Three of the four rockets that ISIS’ Sinai Province launched were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system. No injuries were reported, though several people were treated for shock.

The Sinai-based jihadists have close ties to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, with Egyptian authorities claiming that Hamas transformed Sinai Province from, in the words of one Egyptian official, “a gang of Bedouin with light weapons into a well-trained, well-armed group of 800 militants.” These close links have enraged the Egyptian government and army, which are frequently targeted by Sinai Province. The group has also on several occasions fired at Israel.

Hamas provides medical care to Sinai Province fighters and helps the ISIS affiliate smuggle weapons into Egypt, the Times of Israel reported in December. Arik Agassi reported for The Tower (The Israel Project's publication) in January 2016 that the alliance between Hamas and Sinai Province, which also includes funding and military training, serves as part of Iran’s plan to establish its hegemony across the Middle East.

Saved by the sewing machine. At least five people were wounded when a Palestinian man opened fire at a bus and stabbed another man at the marketplace in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva on Thursday. His rampage came to an end when he entered a sewing machine repair shop and was brought down by an Israeli civilian with a sewing machine.

The assailant lightly injured two bus passengers in their legs. A third person was also shot in their legs, the Times of Israel reported. Bystanders then attempted to subdue the shooter. A man told medical personnel that he had been stabbed in the neck while attempting to apprehend the assailant before police arrived.

The police later identified the shooter as a 19-year-old Palestinian from the northern West Bank. He used a Carl Gustav homemade machine gun, also known as the “Carlo”, which have been mass-produced in the West Bank and also used in previous terrorist attacks against Israelis.

A fifth person was injured in the chaos following the shooting when a mob mistook him for the suspect.

People with diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are advised to spot-check their blood-glucose levels several times daily to reduce the risk of serious complications. That’s a lot of finger-pricking, considering that about 700 million people fall into one of those categories. The Israeli company Integrity Applications put more than a decade into developing GlucoTrack, described as the first truly noninvasive system for self-monitoring glucose levels. Instead of drawing blood, you clip the GlucoTrack sensor to your earlobe. A patented combination of ultrasonic, electromagnetic and thermal technologies works with a proprietary algorithm to measure physiological parameters correlated with glucose level. (via Israel21c)